Messages

106

Users / Re: Need help installing ATI Radeon 9100 Drivers

« on: October 02, 2008, 03:48:00 pm »

Hi,

It might not be the driver itself.  In the configuration file /etc/X11/xorg.conf there are settings to tell the computer what resolution ti display on the monitor, and at what frequency.  It is most likely that your computer is putting out a signal that the TV canoot dsiplay.

TVs (plasmas and LCDs ) are especially fussy when it comes to the resolution and frequency.

You have some things you can do:
1) Check the net for a "modeline" for your TV
2) Create your own modeline using a Windows laptop/PC and Powerstrip software
3) Try to create a modeline that works for your TV

Please post your TV model number, and what the connection is between your PC and your TV.

Your TV manual will normally list the supported resolutions and frequencies for each type of input (VGA, HDMI etc). If you can, please list them (e.g. 1366x768 60Hz).

Even if you get the ATI card to work without driving the TV batty you may find (as I did) that weird stuff happens, like the LinuxMCE menus blinking on for 1/10 of a sec then vanishing.

The easiest way around this is to get an Nvidia 8500GT (Gigabyte fanless version) or 8600GT (Zotac fanless version).  Plug it in and in your BIOS disable your ATI display chips on the motherboard.

107

Users / Should UpdateMedia use up lots of CPU?

« on: October 02, 2008, 12:28:16 pm »

This seems to be running a LOT on my system.

I think it may be because I defined a RAID-1 partition (md4) by booting into standalone Linux and manually creating it.  Then booting LinuxMCE it had problems mounting it (I put a wrong option into /etc/fstab).  I am mounting the partition over /home.  It is JFS.

Think LinuxMCE deteced the partition at first boot and assigned it a device number (before I ficed the mount problem).  Now it is mounted properly as /home.

Could it be because LMCE is updating files in /home, which then trigger a rescan because it is also a disk device?

I am away from home right now so can't give more details.

108

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: Give user option to go into Mythtv LiveTV or just another Mythtv menu

« on: October 02, 2008, 12:22:58 pm »

Thom,

Are you going to just reface the scheduler? 

I actually like the Mythv user interface with its hierarchy.  It is Tivo-like and simple.  If only the mythmusic was based on the same sort of UI :-P

So if you ARE going to rewrite a UI for recordings, why not make it common with music files and photo files.  So it sorta looks like the Myth one, but instead of "All Programs" and then program listings below, you start with "Videos", "All TV recordings", "Music" and then when you slide onto that option the next level of scrollable menu appears.

It always seemed to me that the same sort of UI would be good for music. 

e.g

Music
 -> Add to playlist
    -> New playlist
    -> Current playlist
    -> Play once playlist
        -> Albums
        -> Artist
        -> Genre
        -> Songs
        -> Year
        All of which go to
            -> Remove from playlist (removes all matching songs oor artist name or genre from selected playlist)

Same sort of deal with photos.  Just treat everything as playlists.  Same structure all through.

It is similar to the current "pop up a list" UI2.

Is it difficult to populate and scroll a list?

Just an idea!

109

Users / Re: Linux MCE - what is your fastest boot time?

« on: October 01, 2008, 02:35:23 pm »

Nothing wrong with trying to make it boot faster IMHO.

Here is an article which may help.  If it works, put the info into the Wiki.  We can all use the time saved :-)

http://aldeby.org/blog/index.php/speed-up-your-ubuntu-linux-boot.html
http://www.planetmy.com/blog/improve-linux-boot-up-speed/
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/05/03/2126222

Runit is a replacement for the boot process.  Maybe not a great idea with LinuxMCE 710 but LMCE TNG???

110

Feature requests & roadmap / Give user option to go into Mythtv LiveTV or just another Mythtv menu

« on: October 01, 2008, 02:06:09 pm »

Now I have LinuxMCE going, and its use of  Mythtv is driving me up the wall.

The problem is that if all tuners are used, LinuxMCE keeps trying to set Mythtv to LiveTV mode, and 'cos it get a bad return code from Mythtv it just keeps trying.

Could it please
1) just give up immediately instead of retrying
  or
2) Not try to go directly into LiveTV- Mythtv main menu should be good enough
  or
3) Give the user a configurable option as to whether they want it to go to Mythtv LiveTV or Mythtv Menu (maybe even which menu?)

There is another horrible side effect that if you choose the option in MythTV to always go to program schedules instead of LiveTV (ie with PIP display of LiveTV and rest of screen is program guide) then LinuxMCE loops.

It is also possible that this is my problem , not LinuxMCE's.

111

Developers / Wiki- can't create thumbnails today

« on: September 27, 2008, 12:29:11 pm »

Hi,

Couldn't find a bug report or feedback link in the Wiki.  I uploaded an image of a computer case (am reorganising the recommended hardware into main pages and templates for the common sections, so that we don't have 3 different spots with the same recommendations for a product).  Now when I try to embed an image thumbnail I get this in the image box
/usr/bin/convert: No such file or directory

Suspect imagemagick has not been reinstalled, or has not been linked to /usr/bin which is where mediawiki expects to find it

The wiki page is Template:Mid-size HT style cases

The image it is trying to convert is definiteyl there, cos if I remove the |thumb| section from the image link it comes up in glorious widescreen technicolor.

112

Installation issues / Re: What rewrites xorg.conf all the time and how do I stop it?

« on: September 27, 2008, 05:54:35 am »

Thanks- something is also removing the xorg-drivers-fglrx package.

Don't know what I've done this time, actually got all the way through the AVwizard and the video setup then everything went horrible.  I never get the orbiter up fully, it crashes near the last steps. I followed the steps on the wiki, but ended up with crashing X instead.

Just about to give up on the ATI video.  Had enough of fighting LinuxMCE to get it working. Pity.  With the proprietary drivers it was very close to working. 

113

Installation issues / What rewrites xorg.conf all the time and how do I stop it?

« on: September 27, 2008, 04:32:17 am »

OK, I have checked that AVWizardDone = 1 is in /eytc/pluto.conf, so it is not AVWizard.

What is rewriting xorg.conf?  I can't get to test my changes because the standard one crashes X before the Orbiter starts up, I change it, reboot and there I am back to the same "standard' xorg.conf.

This makes it very very hard to try to get new hardware combinations working. 

Does anyone have a hint?

114

Installation issues / Re: [SOLVED] Integrated ATI RadeonTM 1250 and UI2 issue

« on: September 26, 2008, 10:01:04 am »

Thanks Michael- you used the instructions here on the LinuxMCE wiki, right? And UI2 worked- with alpha blending or overlay?
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers

But these are for the proprietary driver- fglrx, so where were the details you used for the open source "radeon" or "radeonhd" driver?

115

Installation issues / Re: [SOLVED] Integrated ATI RadeonTM 1250 and UI2 issue

« on: September 26, 2008, 03:52:38 am »

Thom,

Thanks for that info on the 6200.  It was slow at UI2 with Alpha.

But I *do* want to get the ATI video working before I give up entirely.  As I see it, working on, reporting,. reproducing, and testing a problem is a contribution to what is a great project.

That and the fact that if I can get rid of another card that is another couple of watts saved!

Colin- yes I know I am causing myself grief, but if I can get the ATI working maybe the solution will help make LinuxMCE more applicable to more hardware.  The ATI drivers load up and fgl_glxgears gives me 500 fps.  If it didn't work AT ALL I'd just give up, but the frustrating thing is that I can see the UI there, there is just something else that paints black over the top of it!   So I get it see it for a flash then it vanishes! I suspect the photo screensaver.  It is sooo close to working.  I can even bodge my way into Mythtv and I can see flashes of the Mythtv main menu. 

What I will do tonight is reload from scratch, install the latest ATI drivers, and run in UI1 for a while, knowing that I can go to UI2 when I want some more pain and suffering.  I'll also put in a bug report.  If anyone picks it up I can go back to UI2.  Because I have gone as far as I can with it now (oh, apart from physically removing my Nvidia card from the system).  I'll also do a final check of my xorg.conf before I give up and go to UI1.

The rotten thing is that the photos that play on UI2 as the screensaver show that the ATI has great quality video.

And we really *should* do the right thing by ATI as they are doing a lot to open up their hardware to Linux.  If we can give them a leg up over Nvidia then maybe eventually Nvidia will hand over their device programming specs too.  If we all give up now we reward proprietary, and punish open source.  So it is worth a bit of pain and effort from me. 

Now if only I can get someone that knows the LinuxMCE graphics code to also buy into trying to fix the issue- or at least diagnose it to the point that we know if it should be raised as an ATI bug.  Because I am not going to become a graphics programmer.

Is there any way to turn off the photo screensaver?  At least I could narrow down the cause, as I don't think it is the main LinuxMCE UI, as that runs OK.

PS is there a quick and easy way to change from UI1 to UI2 without having to go through the AV wizard?  I am happy to edit system files!

116

Installation issues / Re: [SOLVED] Integrated ATI RadeonTM 1250 and UI2 issue

« on: September 26, 2008, 02:48:42 am »

Thom,

Please don't <hmm> at me, I've been spending days trying out the various ATI drivers available, and methods to install, and documenting them in the forums as I can (and will put the resolution in the WIKI when I can and when it is back up).  Think you can call this digging in.  Or perhaps you haven't read the post in its entirety.

I'm not expecting UI3, I just know that there are issues with UI2 on ATI, and want to know what is the best path to getting them solved with the ATI video card.

If I didn't care, I'd just go into my BIOS, switch over to my Nvidia card (which I know works), and wipe my hands of it, saying "oh well its working for me, too bad for ATI support in LinuxMCE".  As it is I've spent probably 20 hours tying combinations of repository and ATI proprietary drivers and installing and reinstalling LinuxMCE (I am getting pretty good at that  )

And I did ask about the best way to get the problem resolved- it is likely to be an interaction between the ATI drivers and the graphics functions being used in LinuxMCE (e.g. overlay order is not correct).  So at some point someone that knows the UI graphics programming in LinuxMCE has to talk to someone at ATI to figure out why it is crashing and not overlaying correctly.  And that is not me.  I can do scripting, documentation, testing, but if we want to fix this within the next 2 years (the time it would take me to become proficient to that depth) then this task is for someone else to do!

I am not asking for ATI support into LMCE as a seamless integration.  Just want it not to crash when I try to use it, and be able to use UI2 with the ATI video and be able to actually see behind the "wall of black" that keeps getting painted over the UI (my previous posts document this- the UI is definitely running, but it "flashes" on for 1/4 sec or so when I toggle between virt console 1 and VT 7), and then the screen goes black again.

ATI have been a pain in the past (I know based on my Mythtv experience), but deserve some support now as they have opened up most of their programming doc to the open source community!

PS I actually have an Nvidia graphics card-6200 but it is so slow on UI2 that if I want to use UI2 I would either use ATI X1250 on the motherboard or buy a new Nvidia card.

117

Installation issues / Re: [SOLVED] Integrated ATI RadeonTM 1250 and UI2 issue

« on: September 25, 2008, 05:58:53 pm »

OK I have now set up the machine as hybrid core/MD, and with the orbiter as the main GUI.  Now I am just getting X crashes at the end of the orbiter starting up.  This is using UI2, tomorrow I will set up again with UI1 but I'm sure this will work fine.

This is driving me crazy, but I don't want to give up on the ATI graphics when I am this close, and Andrew says that he has had the X 1250 video working fine. 

I've also turned off the "sideport" (dedicated graphics memory) on this motherboard, so it is back to using shared memory.

What's the best way to troubleshoot this- report it as a bug?  It'd be really good to get this going, but I am running out of patience, and will either go back to UI1 (and hope that UI3 and/or LinuxMCE 8.04 fix the problems), or buy an Nvidia graphics board.

I've got the Xorg.0.log file with some crash info in it.  Note that the machine does not crash, just X.

118

Installation issues / Re: MythTV Fresh Start

« on: September 25, 2008, 05:51:20 pm »

I think there is a template DB which is distributed with Mythtv, and I am sure there are instructions somewhere on the mythtv.org or mythtvtalk.com web sites about how to reset your database. You feed it into MySQL.  SOrry I can't be of more help it is a while ago that I saw it.  You could also try setting up Mythweb, and also the phpMySQL browser which I found v useful with setup of Mythtv.

Ah ha! found it!
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-6.html

You can just

Code: [Select]

find / -name mc.sqlto see if it on your system

When I was just running Mythtv, I set up a cron job to export the DB once a day and compress it as a backup.  Not a bad idea if you are fiddling about a lot!

Good luck!

119

Installation issues / Re: No log-in screen

« on: September 25, 2008, 05:47:15 pm »

Hi,

Your screen may be getting a signal that is out of its range, or you may have hit the dreaded "I asked for output on VGA but got it on DVI connector" bug.  What type of display do you have?

1) Try a DVI to VGA converter cable or plug.  You may have got one with your graphics card, or you can buy or borrow one.  Or plug your screen into the DVI port (which port is your display plugged into on your graphics card?)

2) Edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to make sure your screen is getting a good signal.

Ctrl-Alt-F1 to a ocnsole screen, then

Code: [Select]

sudo su -
cd /etc/X11
cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.my_backup
nano xorg.conf

(I hope nano is installed by default, I think it is, I use vi)
Go down until you see a line which starts with "modeline", put a # at the front of the line to comment it out.
The lines below should say something about scan rate. Set the figures to something like this if you have a CRT (TV tube) display.  Otherwise change 88 to 62 for an LCD display.

Code: [Select]

        HorizSync    30-107
        VertRefresh  48-88

Also, take a look at your /var/log/xorg.0.log and post it here for us to have a look at if neither of those 2 work.

Hope this helps you out!

120

Installation issues / Re: 0710 with LVM

« on: September 23, 2008, 03:42:43 am »

which is /home/public/data/videos/tv_shows_1/

right?  just trying to figure out where to mount my mythtv filesystem once I create it

I don't like media sharing the same filesystem as the OS- too easy to fill it up.  same for /tmp